Kill 'em and Leave

Searching for the Real James Brown

A dramatic and thrilling read, as well as a complicated story of race, music, the American South, and ultimately America today. James Brown is arguably among the most famous African Americans in the world. James McBride, himself a black man and a musician with southern roots, traveled south on a tip from Brown's grandson promising to give him a scoop on the real man behind the legend. Despite his enormous influence, Brown's musical legacy remains largely underappreciated, his will is a legal nightmare, and as his fortune is dispersed to warring lawyers, not a penny has been paid to educate the poor white and black children of Georgia, according to his wishes. His body is lying in a coffin on his daughter's front yard and the man himself has remained an elusive enigma. McBride met with relatives, neighbors, friends, Brown's "adopted" son Al Sharpton, fellow musicians who played in Brown's band, who have never talked about Brown on the record before, and yet what he discovered was not what he expected. In this gripping narrative--at once adventure, music narrative, and social commentary--McBride comes to understand the reason that Brown has remained hidden to us all these years and what that means for us today.